Vacation/WTP

Hello everyone! Well our vacation is finally beginning to wind down (dagnabbit!) But I suppose for a vacation to go on forever, that's when it's called 'retirement' and I'm not there yet. Or its called 'unemployed' and I certainly don't want to go there so..hi hoo hi hoo!

Anyway, Paul and I had a great vacation, dispite him getting a deep tissue infection in his arm and having to go to emergency while in Hardin Montana! That cleared up in the specified time what with all the pain killers and antibiotics they filled him up with! But the swelling in his hand didn't go down and it was very painful, so back to the emergency in Laramie Wyoming. There he was informed that 'yes' in infection was cleared up, but now he has carpol tunnel (sp?) in that hand--so more painkillers and anti-inflamitory, plus his arm and hand got wrapped up and immobilized for three days. I was doing the driving then for a while, and unscrewing all the medicine bottles! Not to mention cutting his steak for him!

We stopped at Little Big Horn first on our way down. Both of us had been there before with our previous spouses, but Paul really wanted to go again since his wife at the time had no appreciation for the place and kept on nagging him to hurry up so they could leave! And since it's been about 20 years since I was last there, I kind of wanted to see it again anyways.

It still had the same effect on me as it did the first time. It is hallowed ground that is for sure and I found myself speaking in hushed tones whenever we said anything at all. There are monuments there dedicated to everyone who fought and died in that place, soldier, civilians, natives and even for the horses! I liked that! We spent about four hours there--maybe more since time really had no meaning and I think we could easily have spent another few hours if we'd really wanted to dig into every nook and cranny! Truely a sacred place and well worth the time to go and pay respect.

After that we made our run into Colorado and headed over to visit with InsideOutlaw. What a beautiful drive that was! The area down by Denver was rather bleak, but once we turned west and headed into the mountains it was just amazing! Our Rocky Mountains here in BC are also very beautiful in the fall, but the Rocky's in Colorado I think have us beat! It was a really sunny day when we drove in and the rich golds and yellows and reds, not to mention greens etc were just brilliant and I was busy snapping away with my camera, trying to take it all in! Even felt inspired to do some painting, something along the lines of Heyes and Curry riding through the Colorado Rocky's in the fall! Time to dig out my paper and pastels again!

My visit with InsideOutlaw went well. I suppose there is always a bit of trepidation when actually meeting someone you've only spoken with on the site, but I suppose it's not surprsing that we got along very well! That first evening it was actually the guys who had to call it a night, since she and I just kept on talking and talking and talking.....

The ride the next day was well worth the drive. It was so different from the type of riding that I have on the coast and so much more to my liking--the kind of riding that I've always wanted to do! Here on the coast its all roads and bridle paths and our biggest worry is to avoid getting run over by a semi or some idiot who just has to honk his horn right when he's driving by us! On this ride with InsideOutlaw we were truely in the mountains and though she said that they do run into bikers sometimes, on this ride we didn't come across any motorized vehicles other than the ones in the parking lot.

The biggist issue was gopher holes! She had to keep reminding me to watch out for those little devils because we don't get gopher holes here on the coast so it never occured to me to be watching out for them! The horse I was riding was far more aware of them and would often simply stop if she had a concern, then there was me wondering why she wouldn't move forward! You just don't think of little differences like that until you meet up with them!

Over all, again it was a wonderful ride and the scenery and view from up there was simply magnificent. We both wore our Hannibal Heyes hats and talked about ASJ (amungst other things) throughtout the whole day and the ride was just long enough to be enjoyable but not a strain. Hopefully we'll be able to get back again sometime and maybe plan it better so that we have more time! Never did get to go to the winery!

Then on the way back we did indeed stop and visit The Wyoming Territorial Prison! Certainly different from my imaginings but isn't that always the case!? The two main differences of course, is that the actual place is quite a bit smaller than the prison in my story which, when you think about it, makes sense because of the on-going problems they had with the finacial aspect of keeping the vacility running. I had a lot more hallways and offices in my prison whereas the original is a lot more compact.

The other main difference was that I had the working area in the same building as the cell blocks but in the real thing, the working area is in a whole other building! So, yes if I had been able to come on the Denver gathering last year my story would have been a little bit different but in the mean time, chalk it up to creative licence! Nobody reading TOF seems to mind the discrepancies.

Another interesting aside to this part of the trip was actually being in the place where most of my story is taking place. There I was sitting in a hotel room in Laramie and writing about Heyes being in prison in Laramie! That was kind of interesting and seemed to add just a little bit more ambiance to the whole writing expereince!

So all in all it was a great trip dispite Paul's little saunters to the various emergency rooms, but at least there were no hospital stays! And he enjoyed himself as well on the most part. The next chapter of TOF should be ready for posting soon as I have been working on it throughout the vacation, just not as diligently as I would have been at home. But it is coming! Thank you for your patients!